Abstract: Increasing Inclusion over Time: The Promise of Leader-Member Exchange (Society for Social Work and Research 20th Annual Conference - Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future)

Schedule:

Thursday, January 14, 2016: 4:15 PM

Meeting Room Level-Meeting Room 13 (Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel)

* noted as presenting author

Kim C. Brimhall, MSW, CSW, PhD Student, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Michàlle E. Mor Barak, PhD, Lenore Stein-Wood and William S. Wood Professor in Social Work and Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Michael Hurlburt, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Lawrence A. Palinkas, PhD, Professor of Social Policy and Health, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

John J. McArdle, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Benjamin Henwood, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Background/Purpose: As workforce diversity increases, organizations are recognizing the need to create inclusive workplaces. This is particularly important for child welfare organizations that strive to create diverse workforces that match the clientele they serve, yet little is known about how child welfare leaders can increase workplace inclusion. There has been a call for research to examine the effects of leadership in multicultural contexts, and therefore the current study examined the association between leadership and workplace inclusion in a diverse sample of child welfare workers.

Method: Longitudinal data with three time points were collected every 6 months from a large public child welfare organization (n = 363). Several latent change score models were examined to investigate simultaneously how inclusion changed and whether LMX influenced this change. The following 4 models were explored: (a) there was no change in inclusion; (b) there was proportional change in inclusion; (c) there was constant change in inclusion; and (d) inclusion changed as a function of both proportional and constant change. Among all models examined LMX was used to predict the change in inclusion over time. Analysis was conducted in R statistical software (both Lavaan and Psych packages). All measurement tools were previously validated by other research.

Results: The sample was diverse, with approximately 31% of the sample self-reported as Caucasian, 29% Latino, 22% African American, 12% Asian and 6% in the mixed racial/ethnic category. After adjusting for education and job satisfaction (significant predictors of missingness), LMX was significantly associated with inclusion scores at Time 1 (B = .47, SE = .05, z = 10.37, p < .001), the change in inclusion from Time 1 to Time 2, and the change in inclusion from Time 2 to Time 3 (B = .18, SE = .06, z = 3.19, p < .001) in all latent change score models. The constant change model suggested that perceptions of inclusion are positively influenced by a constant/developmental change of 1.0 units per 6-month interval.

Discussion/implications: Results suggest that favorable perceptions of LMX at one point in time can have positive lasting effects on increasing inclusion 6 months and even 12 months later. Our study is among the first few to examine the relationship between leadership and inclusion longitudinally, providing evidence for the important role child welfare leaders have in creating an inclusive environment. Several possible implications for how to train child welfare leaders in improving the quality of LMX and thereby increasing workplace inclusion are discussed, e.g., matching leaders and followers based on shared personal values and identities, delegating tasks, and increasing trust. Improving workplace inclusion has been associated with improved staff outcomes (e.g., trust, job satisfaction, commitment, retention) and may ultimately lead to improved client outcomes.